In this blog post, I will share my travel experience to Cochin, more popularly known as Kochi, a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India. It is a charming costal town in Kerala, known for its rich history, culture and beautiful waters. Now, let me begin by telling you why and how this destination came up in my consideration set:

• Earlier in the year, some friends of mine had visited the Kochi Muziris Biennale art festival. They really enjoyed their stay as well as the festival, and that made me eager to visit the city. However, the only drawback at that point for them was the weather. It was extremely hot (and humid) in the month of April, which made it hard to step out between 10am and 5pm, so I thought to myself that I have to plan a trip to this city in better weather!
• Also, for a long weekend in August this year, I was in Coorg and stayed at The Wilderness Coorg, a sprawling and luxurious property (with over 100 rooms) by the Paul John Resorts & Hotels. I loved the stay. And it was here that I learnt that the Group also owns the Forte Kochi heritage hotel in Kochi, and so, I got interested in seeing it. And this is also where my friends who had gone earlier in the year, had stayed
• Lastly, towards the end of August, a lot of articles popped up in my news feed on Onam celebrations all over Kerala, including in Kochi. I felt this would be an ideal time to visit the city – enjoy the monsoon as well as the festival. Unfortunately, my plan couldn’t materialize, but as soon as I got an opportunity, I decided to head there with some friends, which was in Sept 2023

Our plan was to be there for 3 days – Saturday morning to Monday night. It’s easy to get there, just fly into the Cochin International Airport. I enjoyed my window seat as it offered great landing views – beautiful clouds up and a lovely green cover below. The airport is small and charming, very unlike airports at metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai. And a fun fact – did you know this airport is the world’s first 100% solar powered airport! Quite a feat I must say!

Hello Kochi…

We landed in Kochi around 11am and booked an Uber to get to our hotel – this was the Forte Kochi Heritage Hotel – ofcourse, as the name suggests, in the heart of the Forte Kochi area. I’d like to highlight two key points at this stage:

1. For local commute, Uber and Ola operate in Kochi. This is good as you don’t have to rely on expensive hotel cabs or struggle to get local taxis
2. In terms of accommodation, what I understand is that there are two main areas which you could choose to stay at – (a) a boutique hotel in the Fort Kochi area, which is what I did and (b) a luxurious 5-star property like Taj or Trident in the Willingdon Island. Each will have its own charm!

For now, coming back to my trip. As per Google Maps, the drive to our hotel showed about 1.5 hours, however, we took longer. This is because there is a patch on the route, where one needs to cross the sea and needs to be done on a ferry, which is a quick 10 minute. However, when we reached that point from the airport, there was a long queue of vehicles to get a spot on the ferry. And there was just one ferry which was doing round trips, so we would have had to wait atleast an hour for our turn. Instead, we decided to take an alternative road route, which took us longer. We finally reached our hotel around 230pm. To be honest, it was not like the Coorg property – not large and spread out, not lavish or elaborate, but still very nice – just different! It was more like a resort or a boutique hotel. Small, sweet and cozy with only 27 rooms. Warm and welcoming staff and a nice central pool area.

Forte Kochi, my home for two nights…

Now let’s talk about the key things to do in Fort Kochi –

1. First and foremost, explore Fort Kochi on foot. Enjoy walking the lanes, check out the majestic rain trees (very unique to this area), visit the many different art galleries and cafes on literally every street – Kashi Art Café, David Hall and Pandhal Deli, French Toast, Lila, and Qissa to name a few
2. Most certainly, sign up for a heritage walk in the area. It takes a good 1.5 hours in the morning pre-breakfast. One learns about the history of the port city, esp the strong colonial influence of the Dutch, Portuguese and the British and then one also gets to actually see this influence in the architecture of the buildings like the Tower House, Santa Cruz Basilica, Francis Church, Vasco House, Bastions, etc. Ofcourse, one also gets to see the promenade, the Arabian Sea, the interesting flora of the area, hear the origins of the famous Chinese Fishing Nets, stroll on the Mahatma Gandhi beach, see the street art, Parade Ground, etc. A very wholesome experience indeed!

The Promenade and the Chinese Fishing Nets…

Glimpses of the Forte Kochi Lanes and Beautiful Architecture…

Street Art at Fort Kochi…

The Numerous Cafes and Art Galleries…

Just couldn’t get enough of these rain trees…

3. Take an auto and go to Mattancherry:

• Take a tour of the Dutch Palace, which has a collection of great historical artifacts (e.g., antique furniture, weapons, statues of Kochi kings, their coronation robes and palanquins etc.). What stood out for us were the murals – depictions from the Ramayana. If you enjoy history and are keen to learn, hire a guide – something no one told us and we missed out on. From what I understood, guides have to be pre-booked (find out from your hotel) as we were unable to find one at the Palace, strange but true!
• Walk the lanes of Jew Town – clean, touristy and very pretty – known for its antique shops, souvenir buys, and spice market. Visit the Jewish Synagogue
• Grab a meal at the Ginger House restaurant. Not only is it done up beatifically but also has lovely views of the Arabian Sea. Another option, which we didn’t do, but was a recommendation was coffee at the Mocha Art Café

Highlights of Mattancherry…

4. Next, let’s come to food. Non-vegetarians are spoilt for choice – fish, prawns, chicken, mutton, beef – you name it, you get it! For vegetarians like me who were keen to try local food, best options were coconut curries, veg stew, appam and malabar parottas…all yummy!

Since, we’ve talked about stay as well as food, let me mention this – There are numerous boutique hotels in Fort Kochi, and each has a restaurant. So, one has ample choice to pick from, both to stay and to eat – There’s Forte Kochi, where we stayed and their restaurant is called Jetty. Some others, to name a few, are Old Harbour House, Malabar House, Neemrana Tower House, Brunton Boatyard, Eight Bastian, and Azora. Additionally, there are various standalone cafes and restaurants too like Loafers, Trouvaille and Living Earth Yoga.

5. How can we not talk about shopping on any trip! So, here are the typical things to buy:

• Local spices like cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, black pepper, etc.
• Incense sticks and soaps with fragrances – jasmine, sandalwood, rose, lavender, etc.
• Clothes – cotton kurtas, dresses, sarees. There are national chains like FabIndia and Anokhi, but also several local stores like Kochi Kochi and eco-friendly ones like Ambal

6. Some other fun things to do in Forte Kochi are: sign up for a yoga/arial yoga class at Living Earth Yoga, take a cooking class, watch a Kathakali performance, etc. For things to do and places to eat in Kochi, I used an app called Urbanaut. You can try it too! Infact, just to share with you the other resource I used for this trip was the blog by Forte Kochi, tilted ‘15 Things to do in Beautiful Fort Kochi’ – https://www.fortekochi.in/blog/15-things-to-do-beautiful-fort-kochi.php

Before moving on, I’d like to share with you an article that I recently saw that read ‘Fort Kochi to get a makeover’ – https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2023/sep/25/fort-kochi-to-get-a-makeover-2617925.html. Some highlights of the facelift include the Kochi Metro offering the Water Metro to tourists, the broken tiles of the footpath leading to the beach will be replaced, modern kiosks set up for fish vendors, etc. This means the destination will only become more appealing, attractive and inviting!  

Note, thus far, I’ve covered only things to do in Fort Kochi. Since we had a late night flight back, we had few hours to explore the Kochi main city in the evening. Uber Rental was a great option here.

While on our way to the city, we came cross a beautiful Walkway, maintained by the Kochi Port. We got off our cab and took a stroll there, enjoying the lovely sunset views.

We then visited the Rainbow Bridge and enjoyed the pleasant breeze and a leisurely walk at Marine Drive. If you are keen and have the time, you could take a boat ride here. If you are a shopping freak, do visit the local market area – MG Road/Broadway and the Lulu Shopping Mall. Driving past this entire area, I couldn’t help but notice how both sides of the road had such huge stores – this part of Cochin looked even more metropolitan (and prosperous) than Bangalore!

I had researched a little and found a small but pretty church to see, named Infant Jesus. And thanks to our Uber driver who additionally took us to the George Forane Church, also known as Edapally Church. It was simply stunning. I’ve been to several European countries and seen many churches, but this one was nothing short of sheer magnificence. I often wonder why no one talks about it; I didn’t find a mention of it anywhere when I was researching for my trip. It truly was a hidden gem. I would urge you to take out a few minutes while on your way to the airport to visit this beauty.

So, with that, I come to an end to my trip. But before closing, one key question everybody asks me, how many days are sufficient for Kochi. We had planned to be just in Forte Kochi and explore the area in a relaxed and leisurely way, and so 2-2.5 days was good. Below are some other options to explore:

• If you have few extra days, you could club Alleppey or Kumarakom, each is roughly about a 2-hour drive from Kochi. You could book 1-2 nights there
• If you’re staying in the Fort Kochi area, but want to indulge in some luxury, you could book a one-night stay in Willingdon Island, at a luxury 5-star hotel. On the other hand, if your primary place of stay is say the Taj, then remember, for any action/things to do, you will have to go to the Fort Kochi area, so plan your trip accordingly
• If you have an extra half day only, you could take a boat ride to the backwaters at Viakom, which includes lunch at a local village. This can be done from Kochi, it’s a 6-hour day trip. Alternatively, ofcourse, you could while away your time shopping in Kochi city

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and also found it useful. Please do not hesitate to reach out in case you have any questions or need any guidance in planning your trip to Kochi!